Trasformation of waste oil to biodiesel using Biopro equipments

In order to develop biodiesle technology and equipment for Chinese waste oil, biodiesel production conditions based on the four typical Chinese waste oils and Biopro 380 equipment from United States (US) were studied systematically. The results showed that under the optimum esterification conditions of methanol reflux temperature, reaction time 2.5 h, concentrated sulfuric acid 0.5%, methanol/free fatty acid (FFA) molar ratio 2.7:1, the acid value of esterification mixture was decreased to 1-2 mg/g. Under the optimum transesterification conditions of methanol/oil molar ratio 6:1, the catalyst (NaOH) amount 1.0%, reaction time 60 min, the transesterification efficiency was the best. The verification tests results in the Biopro 380 equipment under the above reaction conditions showed that most of the resultant waste oil biodiesel parameters complied with the limits established by China specifications for biodiesel (GB/T 20828-2007).